His mission is to restore the old bowling alley on University Way, bringing it to its past glory and giving people another source of entertainment.

It’s been vacant since 2015, and its current condition is rough. But Wales intends to invest close to $2 million to make a dream become reality.

“What’s cool about this is that I grew up around bowling. When I was going to Central, this place was pretty popular,” said Wales, who owns Ellensburg Solar and various rental properties. “I wanted to give back to the community a little bit. We can always use another type of entertainment in town.”

Previous owner Kathleen Fogel ran Rodeo Bowl at 830 North Popular Street from 2008 to 2015. When it closed, Kittitas County purchased the building. Wales signed a five-year lease with the county on Jan. 3.

“The building has been sitting there doing nothing forever. It was purchased as part of our master plan. Ryan reached out, and the commissioners are really happy,” Kittitas County Commissioner Cory Wright said.

“This is great. He’s investigating a heck of a lot of money into this property, and he can develop it into a profitable business. As far as the county goes, we’re putting an asset back into circulation.”

It could take as long as 18 months before the sound of balls rolling down the alley with pins bouncing off each other. But renovation is expected to get under way in February.

Wales said the plan is to gut the interior and start from scratch to include dining facilities, a cocktail bar and game room, and a top-of-the-line 16-alley bowling facility with all the modern equipment.

It will be a total remodel, he said.

“We’ll start with demolition and removing all the damaged and broken items, basically cleaning it up,” Wales said. “The bowling equipment behind the lanes needs to be parted out and replaced. That will take the longest, then we’ll start the remodel on the rest of the building. But the biggest thing right now is the demolition and clearing out what’s here.”

He’ll replace the ball returns and ball racks, and dated signage will give way to modern equipment. But even in the darkness of the empty bowling alley, the vision of people enjoying a night out or kids running through the game room wasn’t hard to imagine.

“I grew up around bowling with my family. Kittitas County needs more family activities,” Wales said. “We thought this will be great. It’s in a great location so close to campus. But it’s going to take a lot of work.”